Beyond Posturing

Four years ago BP - the company formerly known as British Petroleum - launched a $200 million ad campaign to rebrand itself as "Beyond Petroleum" and to strut the company's avowed commitment to corporate social responsibility. At its April 16 annual general meeting in London, however, its real face was more visible. A resolution proposing the company stay out of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and other environmentally important areas was voted down, protests against cuts to health benefits for new employees were brushed off, and a 65-year old Azerbaijani woman campaigning against the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to Turkey was not even allowed into the meeting.